My Great x3 Aunt Bessie (1869 - 1946 or 1956) was a housewife, mother of nine, and a younger sister of my Great x2 Grandmother Lucy Vernon (nee James) (1868 - 1897).
Bessie was born on 16th October 1869 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Henry James (about 32), an agricultural labourer, and Louisa James (nee Edwards) (about 23), a housewife.
Bessie was the second of eight children (four daughters and four sons):
- Lucy 1868 - 1897 (29 years old)
- Bessie 1869 - 1946 or 1956 (77 or 86 years old)
- Edwin 1875 -
- Louisa 1878 -
- Emily Maude 1880 -
- Charles 1883 -
- Francis Robert 1886 -
- Gilbert 1889 -
Bessie and her siblings grew up in Morchard Bishop.
In 1871, they lived at Birchenbeer Cottage, Morchard Bishop.
1871 Census:
By 1881, they had moved to Whatcombe, also in Morchard Bishop. I cannot find a place called Whatcombe in or near Morchard Bishop; however, there is a Watcombe Farm today in Morchard Bishop. Was this where Lucy and her family lived? Or at a nearby cottage of the same name?
1881 Census:
In Jan/Feb/Mar 1891, Bessie (21) married George Henry Davey (22), an agricultural labourer and later a farm carter, in the district of Crediton.
When first married, the young couple lived at Rose Cottage at Cruwys Morchard.
1891 Census:
Bessie and George had nine children (four sons and five daughters):
- William Henry 1892 -
- Walter 'George' George 1894 -
- Hettie Marion 1896 -
- Albert Edward 1899 - 1918 (19 years old)
- Ivy Henrietta B 1900 -
- Hilda 'Queenie' Alice Irene 1903 -
- Frances Constance 1905 -
- Edith B 1911 -
- Leonard J 1913 -
The Davey family lived at Kennerleigh from around 1894 to 1900 - there middle children George, Hettie, Albert and Ivy were before -; before moving to Sandford around 1901.
1901 Census:
The family remained at Sandford until least 1903 - daughter Hilda was born in the village that year. But by 1905, they had moved to Lapford, where younger children Frances, Edith and Leonard were born, and where the family could be found on the 1911 Census.
1911 Census:
Bessie and George's eldest three sons, William, George and Albert, all served in the First World War.
Whilst William and George survived the war, younger son Albert (Service Number: 48543) was sadly killed in action. He served as a private in the 5th Battalion of the Princess Charlotte of Wales' Royal Berkshire Regiment. He was missing from 25th May 1918, and later presumed killed in action - most likely during the First Battle of Bapaume (24th - 25th March) during 'The First Battles of the Somme, 1918'. His name appears on the Lapford War Memorial, as well as the Pozieres Memorial (Panel 56 and 57) in the Somme, France.
From the Western Times of 12th July 1918:
On a personal note. When I first saw the small photo portrait of my young cousin (1st Cousin 3 times removed) Albert, two thoughts followed swiftly one after another: first, we not a family that has many photo from far back in our family, and it always feels like catching a rare butterfly, when I am suddenly face-to-face with an never-seen-before relative; secondly, bless the young man but he was handsome, and he had my eyebrows - with one eye/eyebrow higher than the other - or should I say I have his? I can truly see a resemble to myself. And I then thought if I had a brother, he might look like Albert. And then oh to feel that heart-hurting uncertainty of Bessie and the immediate family for the fate of their missing son and brother; and then the eventual acceptance that he was gone before his time.
At the time of their son's disappearance and death in 1918, Bessie and George dwelt at Comminses (or Comins) Cottage in East Worlington. By 1936, the couple were living at Horns Court in Chawleigh.
In the early hours of 7th July 1936, Bessie and George, by then in their sixties, were suddenly woken from their sleep by their married daughter Hilda - also known as Queenie. She was soaking wet. Her husband, George Tilbury, she said, had pushed her down a well!
The younger couple had not been getting on since she became pregnant and gave birth to their second child - this second child, born a decade after their first, was unplanned and unwanted. The couple felt overworked and had been having arguments - a notable one about chapel, which when raised again in the cow shed, resulted in Hilda fearing George was going to lock her inside the cow shed; she thus went to hit his hand away from the lock with a plank of wood, but ended up striking not his hand but his head. They had previously spent short times separated - him staying elsewhere, or her staying with her parents - and after their argument over chapel had so escalated and ended with his having a sore head, George had even gone to a solicitor, and a letter asking for an official separation soon arrived for Queenie. Yet they soon seemed to reconcile - the disagreement over chapel deemed not worth separating over - with George telling Queenie to forget about the letter and it being burnt in the fire.
They were up and about, at just gone 3am that morning, trudging through the field at the back of their cottage, in their wellington boots, because one of their cows was calving; and somehow Queenie ended up down the well. Queenie said it was George's doing; George denied this. There was a suggestion she may have tripped and fallen into the well in the dark - its lid had been left off and the well was open - but Queenie denied this.
Queenie, her clothes wringing wet, her wellies full of water, and fearing not just for her life but for those of her children, managed to climb out of the well and ran to her parent's house for help. She had to abandon her water-filled wellies, so ran most of the way bare-foot, in the pitch black, fearing her husband was either following her or had gone to get their children to throw them into the well after her. When she could not gain access to her parent's house, she smashed a lower window without a flowerbox and scrambled up the stairs to their bedroom.
Bessie and George, what a thing for them to have been woken up to - their Queenie at their bedside, water running from her clothes, her hair all over her face and streaming with water, and oh so fearful.
George Tilbury was put on trial for the attempted murder of his wife, but later found not guilty; and the couple appeared to want to reconcile again. They may have for a time, but a decade later saw them divorce, with both remarrying other parties within six months.
By 1939, Bessie and George had moved from Chawleigh to Knowle Lake in Copplestone.
1939 Census:
On 14th October 1943, two days before Bessie's seventy-fourth birthday, her husband George passed away, aged seventy-five. His funeral took place on 18th October 1943 at Chawleigh.
From the Western Times of 29th October 1943:
I have found two possible records of death for Bessie. Both are of Bessie Daveys, born around 1869/1870, both passed away in the district of Devon Central, the first in Oct/Nov/Dec 1946, the second in Apr/May/Jun 1956. Without ordering the records, I cannot presently work out which is our Bessie's. But we know she lived a long life - into her late seventies, if not her mid eighties - and passed away in Devon.
